


After All These Years

by cas_tielle



Category: Frozen (2013), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Death, F/M, Immortal, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 21:32:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3149204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cas_tielle/pseuds/cas_tielle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which jack experiences a crippling coldness in his heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After All These Years

**Author's Note:**

> a quick ficlet for a friend of mine.

It has been nearly eighty years since he's visited this place. Keeping away has been difficult, but the news has spread throughout the land and it would kill him if he didn't go.

Seeing the palace now is strange, cold as it's always been, but not with any familiarity that he's used to. Snow is his element and he's always felt safe in it, but he is finally feeling what everyone else is; frozen.

The mourners outside are a dark shadow on the blanket of white, and he floats down lightly beside them. Still, no one sees him. Only ever one.

A cloaked white figure leads the mass, up a mountain that's so familiar that his heart thumps painfully against his chest. A castle stands at the top of the hill, still glisteningly perfect after all this time. He assumes that's where the body is being kept.

He hangs back, out of respect for the family. Even if they can't see him, he's not sure if he's wanted here. It feels intrusive. Only after they've lowered the coffin down does he draw closer, the weight of memories pulling him near. He stands idly by as the people weep and blow their noses, but he sheds not a tear. 

When her last breath was taken, she stole his, and now there is nothing left of him but a lingering feeling of sadness and a longing for what could have been.

A glance to the left, and for a breathless moment he thinks he's imagining it, _it can't be her…!_

But no, he is right. When she turns her head, he sees that her nose is too sharp. When she walks, her chin juts out too much and her shoulders are too slumped. When she looks at him, her eyes are too green.

And then he registers that she's looking at him, _looking right at him_.

"Can I help you?" Her voice has the wrong pitch.

Getting over his initial shock, he shakes his head. "I've just come to pay my respects to…to the queen."

Her eyes glitter, looking so similar but it's just so wrong. "Thank you," she says, though she still regards him suspiciously.

"Was she happy, in the end?" He blurts it before he loses the nerve. The resemblance is uncanny, it's like looking at _her_. Knowing that it's not, and never will be again hurts him in ways that he hasn't felt for many decades.

"I think she was," she responds quietly. "I hope she was. Do I have something on my face?"

He realizes that he's been staring, and apologizes. "No, I'm sorry," says Jack Frost with his heart aching and pounding and throbbing in his ribcage. "You just look like someone I used to know."

 


End file.
